Having not played a Mech game since Mechwarrior 2 (which came out in 1996!), I was a little apprehensive when I received this game. How can I compare it to the latest Mechwarrior games? I don’t have a joystick, so how can I play it properly? I didn’t even have the instruction booklet due to a mix up in the office. Luckily, MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries has a brilliant tutorial and hasn’t changed too much from the earlier games in its controls, so I was up and blasting other huge walking tanks in a matter of no time. While it looks a little dated, it’s still an exciting game where massive walking tanks slog it out in a variety of different planetary terrains for fame and fortune.
From what I remember of MW2, you went from planet to planet fighting for your Clan trying to reclaim your right to land / planets / whatever. In MechWarrior 4: the year is now 3063, and you’re hotshot pilot who was involved in the FedCom Civil War. You’ve paid your dues and now are ready to make some cash by joining one of the four Mercenary groups -The Kell Hounds, Wolf’s Dragoons, The Northwind Highlanders, or the Grey Death Legion. Joining a group means you get different mechs and weapons and supposedly different missions, but I played two different groups, albeit not the whole way through, and didn’t notice any difference in the missions. As you progress through the different missions, you’ll find yourself drawn into the story, as every mission you do gives you points with the major players in the universe, and eventually siding with one of the warring factions, Steiner or Davion, which leads to one of two final outcomes.
You start off with a lance of 3 people of varying skills plus yourself, plus 4 light Mechs. As you progress through the missions you gain more money, and more salvage, which includes weapons and Mech chassis. Between missions, you can add or remove people from your pilot roster, replacing any pilots that may have died or hire new ones to form a second lance, as well as buy and sell chassis and weapons on the “Free Market”. You can add different weapons to your chassis in the Mechlab, but you’ve got to manage the heat production and armour as well as electronic anti-combat measures, otherwise you’ll have a huge chunk of metal that keeps shutting down every time you fire. You’ve got to be careful with your money as well, as travelling from star system to star system costs money, as does landing on a planet, and you have to pay your pilots and maintenance costs. I found it relatively easy to keep track of my money though, and a quick sale of a heavy or assault Mech usually gets you enough C-bills to last another mission.
The missions are pretty fast and furious. None of this walking around trying to find checkpoints, you’re pretty much thrown straight into the thick of things. The gameplay is exciting, as you can be battling many other Mechs at a time. Success is achieved through good piloting and aim, as well as tactical use of your Lancemates. Often the success or failure of a mission comes down to the choice of Mechs with appropriate weapons and the level of skill your pilots have achieved. The AI is pretty good, with Lancemates generally staying out of your way, and using long range weapons when they are meant to, and the Opponent AI is also quite clever, although their aim didn’t seem to be as good, and they tend to get confused if they’re outnumbered firing randomly at each target rather than concentrating on just one opponent.
Missions tend to fall into 2 categories – Search / Destroy and Protect / Escort. You can take a breather from the missions to battle gladiator style on Solaris VII, which earns you fame and money, and trains you for online battle. Online battle is a lot of fun, but I STRONGLY suggest you get a joystick… the campaign mode can be won with out one, but you will be WAY too slow for online battle. I had some troubles connecting through the game’s online interface, but no problems connecting through msn.zone.com, the “official” place to play, and I never had trouble finding people to play against.
This games sound is good, the blasts and rat-a-tat-tat of your Mechs AutoCannons sounding pretty realistic, but the in-game music is pretty average techno-rock. Even more of a let down is the graphic engine, being a few years old it really doesn’t stand up to today’s standards. Trees simply disintegrate when you walk into them, and the Mechs themselves just get a little blacker when you pound them with your numerous weapons – no bullet riddled hunks of metal here. It doesn’t take away too much from the game, it just makes it seem like you’re playing a game that came out two years ago.
All in all, MechWarrior 4 – Mercenaries is an excellent game. although its graphic engine is a real let down compared to other games that have come out recently. If you’re a fan of the genre you won’t be too let down, and if you’ve never played a previous incarnation of the game you wouldn’t know any different. The micromanagement of your lances and resources and finances certainly makes the game a lot more interesting and involving, and of course, you’re walking around in huge, heavily armed robot tanks blowing the bejesus out of other huge robots, and what could be more fun than that?
7.5/10
PIC1=
PIC2=
Traffic Opening Night
Traffic Opening Night: Adelaide
Finally, a club for ravers that caters for ALL styles of music across the spectrum of dance music. A club that looks like it will re-energise the weekly scene and offer something new, especially to those of us who are a little bored with the dichotomy of Drum and Bass and Hard Trance. The opening night was a showcase of the emerging scenes of Adelaide –Breaks and Progressive House.
Although both scenes have been well represented in Adelaide for a few years now, they are nowhere near as popular as in other parts of Australia, nor are they as popular as they should be. By officially opening the club with these styles Traffic has signified its intention to alter the perception of these styles from side-lining “other room” music to be major players in the dance music scene in Adelaide. Unfortunately the opening night of Traffic was also the night that Derrick May was re-scheduled to, the night after Clarky, two nights after a Christmas night that featured Bukem, and 3 nights before New Years. Thus, the small turn out was probably understandable.
Despite the lack of size of the crowd the DJ’s were still as professional as ever, and rocked the crowd wickedly. I’m not a big fan of Progressive House, but DJ Mal was playing a rather decent set when we arrived, mixed exceptionally well, that had me tapping my foot on more than the odd occasion. Then Brendan stepped up to the decks. I expected more Progressive, but to my surprise he dropped some breaks. Very happy, I moved to the dance floor to find it all but empty! Oh Adelaide! Why must you be afraid of anything new? Brendan did a good job, playing some slower, girly breaks that complemented Mal’s set very well, rolling into heavier styles such as Raw As Fuck’s “theme from RAW” and Stereo 8’s “Get Above Yourself”, proving that his talents *can* be used for the forces of Good :).
DJ Tayo followed Brendan, bringing the tempo down and funking it up a notch. Having seen him play earlier this year at Vibes, I expected something a little different to what we got. He played it a lot funkier and a lot more “electro” than the usual harder breakbeat style I’ve heard him play, but it suited the mood of the clubbers perfectly. In the past he seemed to play more of the better-known tunes but much of the music he played I haven’t heard before, and I’m not complaining… I thoroughly enjoyed hearing such an amazing DJ mix new tunes so incredibly well. I though a lot of the music had an “eighty’s” sound, in particular the synth sounds, without the kitschiness and arrogance of electroclash. This was backed up by some tremendous remixes of some of the bigger breaks tunes such as the Stanton Warrior’s “Virus” and newer stuff by the likes of Plump DJ’s and the Drumattical Twins.
The sound at Traffic is rather thunderous, but it means it can be heard right through the club, so you can enjoy it from dancing in front of the stage or sitting upstairs on a comfy couch. It was a wise move closing the top section half way through the night, as I realised the club wasn’t as empty as I thought it was. It was very unfortunate that Derrick May had was on at the same time – it meant that a lot of people missed out on seeing a great DJ who exists because of his skill, missed out hearing different music both in style and genre, and missed out on a terrifically friendly atmosphere. Traffic has so much to offer with its weekly Friday dnb nights, it’s varied format Saturdays, and internationals such as Matrix and Fierce, the Scratch Perverts and Krafty Kuts, and CJ Bolland, it’s a shame that the opening night wasn’t as big as it ought to have been.
Y4K – Next Level Breaks – Mixed by the Dub Pistols
The Y4K series of breakbeat mixes not only showcases the best in breaks tunes and breaks DJ’s, it pushes the boundaries of what is termed “breaks” with every release. The Dub Pistols Y4K mix does indeed take us to the next level of breaks, bringing a sense of fun and excitement back not only to the series, but the genre as well.
It’s an incredibly well crafted mix, moving from an Intro from the ‘Pistols themselves, featuring MC Planet Asia, into the sublime Let the Good Times Roll by perennial favourites Layo and Bushwacka. A stomper of a tune, Base 6 by the Chemical Brothers follows this, showing that the Pistols aren’t afraid of to throw a little commercialism in the mix.
Following this are two tracks that bring the mood down a little, Northern Lite’s Treat Me Better and Infusion’s Saltwater (It’s Alright), with their spooky lyrics and expansive basslines. It then comes as a welcome surprise to hear the incredibly funky house number Fly With Me by Coloursound, with it’s disco inspired bass and guitar that will get your nodding your head and grooving wherever you are. Over this is dropped another excellent acapella from the Dub Pistol’s Planet Asia. Following this is Mint Royal and Reckless, keeping the happy, accessible vibe of the CD alive.
Then the mix really fires up, with Adam Freeland’s reworking of Pressure Drop’s Warrior. Moving it forward, the mix gets harder with the Pistols own Problem Is featuring Terry Hall from the “Specials”, and Apex’s Base Design. Krafty Kuts’ remix of Africa Bambaataa’s Funky Hero’s brings the old and new together in Krafty’s own indubitably funky manner. Real Life by the wonderfully named Audio Bully, and Burning Up by the Alpine Stars, which sounds like it samples Ben Lee’s “cigarettes and alcohol”, nicely round up the mix.
The extraordinary thing about this CD is not only the track selection, which is a superb example of the wide scope that breaks can offer in the often stale world of dance music, but the additional production and remixing done to the tune’s by the Dub Pistols. It is truly an accessible CD, which will suit to listening to in the car, while working at the computer, lying in bed, or at a house party with the volume cranked to eleven.
The Scratch Perverts
The Scratch Perverts are Tony Vegas, Prime Cuts and Plus One, undoubtedly three of the best turntablists in the world. They’ve won more ITF’s and DMC’s between them than there are acronyms for DJ battle competitions. I interviewed Joel aka Prime Cuts, and asked him where how the name came about. “It was born out of names Tony and Theo from the Wiseguys were playing around with for a bit of a laugh really. I remember I really hated the name at first, but it kinda works and sticks in people’s minds… people don’t forget it too quickly.” And why didn’t Prime Cuts like the name? “It made me think of dirty old men in raincoats, and now I am a dirty old man in a raincoat, so maybe it is applicable [laughs]”.
They quickly became the UK’s premier crew expanding to an eight strong team that included names like First Rate, Killa Kella and Mr Thing, the latter of which was here recently with DJ Vadim on the Russian Percussion Tour. It was only at the beginning of last year that they decided to slim back down to the original members of Tony Vegas and Prime Cuts. This was partly done to keep the name synonymous with the absolute highest standards and partly because this year will finally see the Scratch Perverts record their debut album. The split is well documented on the web and in print, but I wanted to ask Joel if he had any regrets or is he just simply sick of hearing about it.
“For me it was a very necessary step in the evolution of the Scratch Perverts. The crew is now a three-man outfit and it will be that until the end of the scratch perverts. Legally, the name is owned by all three of us. And I’m hugely confident in this crew.” Originally the crew was cut back to Tony Vegas and Prime Cuts, but now Plus One has been added to the line up. “It never felt like we were adding a third member, he was always a part of the crew. He’s a good friend and really dope DJ. He has an incredible musical brain and maturity, and we just felt it is the right time (2 years ago) to make it official.” I had to ask if he thinks they’d do a big ‘Reunion’ tour ala The Stones in 20 years time “I’m not sure we’ll all be alive in 20 years time [laughs]”
Being from the UK, and wining the DMC’s in New York, the home of hiphop, I wondered if Joel felt there was a difference in styles across the Atlantic. “Every area brings its own influences. In UK we have a lot of different music. I don’t think you get the mix of music you get in London anywhere else in the world. The UK in general has a lot of different kinds of music; it’s very multicultural, very integrated. The States are a bit little more isolated and I don’t think things mix together so much. We’ve got forms of music that’s been born from that [multicultural mix]; chiefly drum and bass, which is a reflection of a lot of different music forms and cultures coming together to form a completely different sound.”
“And that’s something we really try to embrace as the Scratch Perverts – the music we are surrounded by at home, to just to be “us” and what we know, and what we’ve absorbed over the years. There’s no point us trying to do a real heavy New York sounding hiphop album because that’s not us, we’re not from New York and that’s not what we’ve experienced.”
Hiphop culture seems to be on the up and up. You see DJ’s in advertisements selling anything from juice to cars. Joel says “that it’s all good. You’ll go to a local bar in London and there’ll be “Nothing” by Noriega playing, and you’ve got Missy Elliot in the charts, and I think it’s fucking great. It’s a wonderful thing and it’s a music people can get their teeth into a lot more than some of the dance culture which is there for you on the night and that’s it. I feel there’s a little more substance to hiphop. It’s got a cultural background and history that other styles don’t have.”
I asked him what impact he thought the Scratch Perverts residency at Fabric has had on the UK hiphop scene. “I’d like to think it’s drawn some people into it” he says. “You get a real mixed crowd down there; you get the crowd that’s there to see us, and then you get your club crowd, and then you get those from out of town. I get a real kick out of playing records that I know a lot of people there won’t have heard of, and watching people leap around and go crazy to it. One moment really sticks in my mind where I played an old school tune “Rock the Bells” by LL Cool J, something that I don’t normally play out. I played it and people went crazy. We actually got a remix off the back of that night because Howie B came up and loved it so much.”
Having said this, I had to ask him what he thought of the commercialisation of hiphop, specifically through MTV giving the Best HipHop Artist award to Jennifer Lopez. ‘I don’t really fucking care to be honest. The whole kind of awards thing is bullshit anyway. Who are MTV to say ‘you now are worthy of this’?” he asks. “For me if you’re a creative and honest person when you put something out there hopefully a lot of people relate to it. That to me is the awards ceremony right there on the street, where people embrace your music or they don’t. You don’t need a panel of judges made from nobodys, has beens and wish-they-were’s to say, “Yes, you are now Hiphop”. The fact that they chose J-Lo shows they have no fucking idea anyway.”
Being one of the most talented DJ’s in the world, I was wondering what he thought the most difficult aspect of Djing was. “Allowing yourself to have the confidence to be completely original” he says frankly. “When you first start djing it’s natural to mimic the people that you like, and I think it’s quite difficult to have the self-confidence to branch out and do something totally mad original. I was DJing for years before I did any original stuff that was really my own, and it takes a while to build that confidence”.
With DJing becoming more popular, and technological advancements in sound reproduction, and innovations such as CD Mixers and Final Scratch, I wanted to know where Joel saw this all heading. “I don’t see that Final Scratch and CD mixers completely revolutionise the turntable per se, as they basically do exactly the same job. The nice thing about them is you can burn your own sounds and tracks and then manipulate them. I see those things as a studio based tool. I don’t see them replace the turntables in a live environment because what’s the point? The turntable is already a better equation. It’s a fucker taking 200 records to and from a gig, but I’d rather that than a laptop into a sweaty club spinning mp3’s that doesn’t sound too clever.”
“As far as a studio thing they’re incredible. I have one of those pioneer CDJ1000’s and I love it, its an amazing thing to have. It means you can cut your own sounds. You can burp into a microphone and scratch your own burps, whereas before to do that you’d have to cut a dubplate and they’re not nice to cut and scratch.”
“That isn’t to say I’ve been sitting here burping and scratching for the last six months” he adds, laughing. I asked if he has a preference for either DJing or producing, and, as I suspected, he enjoys both. “I like the insular aspects of working in a studio and creating something, then handing it over to Tony Vegas and Plus one and seeing what their reaction is, and I get a great kick out of it when they really flip on something that I’ve done. And I love Djing because it’s there and then and I like the atmosphere and the party vibe when it’s a mad night out. I imagine that for the first half of next year there’ll be more producing than djing, but once the album is out we’re going to hit the road again.”
Their up-coming tour of Australia will see them doing some larger festivals and some smaller club gigs, and asked him what he thinks about this. “It’s nice when you have the intimacy of a close club gig, but for me it’s all about the atmosphere – if you can created the same atmosphere you do in a small club in a huge venue then that’s even more incredible. When we played Sydney last year we played to 1500 people, which is a pretty large venue, but the atmosphere was unbelievable – I would site it as one of the best gigs I think we’ve ever done, of all time. The atmosphere was at fever pitch and when it’s like that it just drives you to perform better.”
My final question was what was it about DJing that’s kept him going, what does he like best about it. “I suppose the lifestyle – getting the chance to meet and see people you wouldn’t normally have, the chance to travel to places like Australia and get payed for the pleasure of doing it and seeing people have a good time. It’s something we never lose sight of, we have one of the best jobs on earth, and we try to break our balls and work as hard as we can, improving what we do so everyone enjoys themselves as much as possible if they’re kind enough to come and see us.”
And luckily Adelaide will not miss out on seeing this awesome act, as they’ll be here in Early January next year.
Altitude II
After a bit of confusion to where it was (they moved it downstairs because funkstrung were upstairs) we proceeded to get comfy in the basement of Minke, as once again Altitude showcased the finest dnb talent Adelaide has to offer. This month we were witness to the highest quality dnb made in Adelaide, that by Hooligan Soul, who are the well known MC’s Pab and G-Swift (aka Grif). While I’m still unconvinced that the world “live” is really applicable to these guys, as I still have trouble seeing a guy behind a computer pressing the spacebar as “live”, their performance is fantastic and their tracks are simply going to blow up big time!
When I arrived we were greeted by the cool sounds of Jayar. This guy is finally bringing some change to the way Adelaide listens to dnb, and I strongly suggest you give his CD a listen. Then Hooligan Soul commenced their mellow set. There was a rather small crowd about, and once the guys started playing people ventured out onto the floor. Their first set was comprised of a variety of smooth tunes, and Grif MC’d over the top of the tunes while Pab played with the effects and levels. It was refreshing to hear a dnb set that doesn’t contain the same old tunes as everyone else for once.
After them stepped up Tommy Jnr, who is one of my favourite dnb DJ’s, who doesn’t get nearly enough gigs for his talent, and he dropped a very sweet selection in his smooth as ever style. Miss Ribbon and I had the opportunity to go upstairs and see Funkstrom, and I didn’t let the opportunity pass, but wasn’t too impressed, and got back in time for Hooligan Souls last set.
Well, this time there were a lot more people around and the boys decided to go harder. They have got some AMAZINGLY phat basslines over the chunkiest beats you’ll hear, and had everyone in the place bouncing to their sound. Being the MC’s they are, Pab and Grif couldn’t resist going back-to-back being one of the highlights of the night. The other highlight was definitely the Fat Boy Slim Bootleg, which I hear is getting released, which is excellent news not only for the boys, but for Adelaide as well.
For me the night finished up with John Doe, again playing a fine selection of tunes in his uncompromising style. With Hooligan Soul, along with 5158 Records and Bigdog, Adelaide is finally getting its act together and it’s about bloody time. For years I’ve heard great tunes made by these guys, and it’s looking like they’re finally going to get the recognition they deserve.
Inbound
Inbound has been an Adelaide institution for the last 5 years. Coming out of a total love for the music, Fiction and Filter provided the first pure drum and bass party organised and run by pure drum and bass heads for all “the bad boys and bad girls”.
“To start with our idea was to get our mates who we thought had talent to play out”, says Filter. “We wanted to do pure drum and bass party,” adds Fiction. “Other crews did do drum and bass nights, but they weren’t solely drum and bass promoters”.
When asked who are the Inbound crew, the answer is a core of Fiction and Filter, Luke B, Evn, Tommy Jnr, and MC’s Pab, Xpress and Grif, but caries on to encompass most of the drum and bass djs in Adelaide. “It’s an everyone thing” exclaims Fiction, “but we’ve got that core crew – they not necessarily the biggest names in Adelaide, but the combination of the DJ’s and the music they play that’s what makes Inbound unique to anything else”. “It’s what makes us tick,” adds Filter, “they work well together and the crowd feels it”.
With these guys the phrase “all about the music” keeps coming up time and again, and if you’ve been to an inbound show you know that it really is. The DJ’s and crowd are “educated about the music. It’s not about taking this or getting drunk or picking up. Everyone’s there to hear fresh tunes, feel a great vibe and know that they’re going to get a good quality night”. This attitude carries across to their choice of interstate and international acts such as Bailey (UK) and Mosus (NZ). “You know that these guys are really into the music and want to educate people whereas other DJ’s just come over and play the big anthems and it’s all about the money and being famous”.
The latest party is also the launch of www.inbound-sound.com, the official website. “These days you need a website to be taken seriously” says Fiction. “It’s going to be a site for people to find out about up and coming parties, and for people to find out what all the hype is about”. It will feature exclusive mixes, tunes, and a DJ Management page, so up and coming and established DJ’s can network to get gigs.
Supporting new and different DJ’s has always been inbounds goal, and the next inbound on Saturday November 16th will feature the first in the “Future Forces” series, with Run Tough and Rueben. “Expect these guys to tear up the floor with the regulars!” exclaims Filter enthusiastically. So, if you’re into drum and bass and are looking for something that’s different from the norm, head down to the Crown and Sceptre this Saturday night from 9pm. I can promise you won’t be disappointed!
The Dub Pistols
The Dub Pistols’ Barry Ashworth is a mainstay of English Dance Music. He has been around since the first summer of love in 1988, when he started two seminal nightclubs “Naked Lunch” and “Eat the Worm”, as well as forming the indie band “Déjà vu”. They were a “dance music band signed to Cowboy records, similar to Happy Mondays and the like,” he says in a typical South London accent. When asked if he’d ever do it again he says that he doubts it, but “you can never say never – two years down the road you end up making music you said you wouldn’t”.
Recently the English music press recently heralded that the past (English) summer was the next “summer of love”. Ashworth says, “If it’s your first time out, then yeah, it probably is the same, but back then things were different from anything else and now electronic culture is a world wide thing. Back then people did it for the buzz, now there’s a whole business / industry surrounding it.”
Ten years down the road, after the disbanding of Déjà Vu, Ashworth formed The Dub Pistols in 1997. The name is a response to the scene at the time, with people being quite purist about electronic music. Combining punk ethics with dub mentality he and Lee “Einstein” Spencer caught the ear of Jon Carter, who asked them to remix the Monkey Mafia track “Blow the Whole Joint Up”. They did, and the result led to them being signed to deconstruction imprint Concrete, home of Lionrock and Death In Vegas.
With these and other seminal breakbeat acts such as Ceasefire, The Dub Pistols helped reshape the breakbeat sound from the formulaic bigbeat into what would become nu-school breaks. “Every sound changes, mutates and moves on” Ashworth says. “Triphop, Bigbeat, Amyl House, Nu-school breaks, Future breaks… but it’s primarily the same thing”. He’s also done a fair bit of work with other people, including working with Busta Rhymes on the Blade II soundtrack, Terry Hall of The Specials, and Horace Andy of Massive Attack of which he says “were big moments for us”. When asked with whom he’d like to work with, he says “Ian Brown (Stone Roses) is someone we’d like to work with… Chuck D (Public Enemy) and also Mike James from the Clash”.
His eclectic taste has seen him push the breaks sound to it limits again, The Dub Pistols’ Y4K release, surprisingly Ashworth’s first mix CD, continues the great tradition of this wonderful series. The album is quite funky, with the emphasis on FUN. This CD is not “me djing in club, people are going to listen to it in their cars and at home, so it needs to be a little more accessible” Ashworth says of it. Not only does it feature the leaders of the breaks scenes such as Layo and Bushwacka, Adam Freeland and Australia’s own Infusion, but also features exclusive Dub Pistols acapella’s by Planet Asia, all mixed seamlessly in a groovy, energetic, head-bop inducing manner.
Energy is what Ashworth is all about. He was kicked out of a club for being too “energetic” once, and his DJ sets reflect this energy and passion. He’s coming to Australia at the end of November (but unfortunately not to Adelaide) and says that while he’s never been here before “He’s heard nothing but good things about us”. For a taste of what he can do check out the latest Y4K breaks mix (out on Distinctive breaks), and if you’re lucky enough to live in the eastern states go catch one of his shows.
Written 10/11/2002
Drumattic Twins – Drumattical
Some breakbeat records tend to be too arty-farty now days. They try too hard to move away from the “big beat” sound and the negative connotations attached to it that they lose focus, tending to be a mish-mash of sound that leaves you wondering what the hell you’re listening to. Thankfully the Drumattic Twins haven’t done this with their first release “Drumattical”, but instead provide a very listenable and danceable album of wicked beats that ride the spectrum of breakbeat, without becoming cheesy or clichéd.
The album begins with the sound of searching through radio stations, with snippets of talk and music. The latter I suspect are some of their previous releases as “Shades of Rhythm”. This drops into “Smokin It”, which is just a small taste of what you’re about to hear. It’s a pretty simple breakbeat tune that gets your head nodding. This mixes seamlessly into “Start of Something”, a groovy electro influenced tune that builds up nicely to “Feelin’ Kinda Strange”. With it’s sped up vocal and funky guitar loops it is perfect pop, and this has seen it get a lot of air play on JJJ. It will stick in your head, but luckily you’ll want it to stay. After this the album tends to get even funkier, if that’s possible.
“Thinking About You” starts with a soulful sample and then counts down with an old school electro voice (that I just LOVE) to one of the funkiest breaks you’ll hear. “Wormhole” is another nod to electro, being retro without sounding dated. “Mutate the Beat” is one of my favourites, with a groovy bassline underlying an awesome funky wah guitar. “Mind the Gap” is another stomper, with a phat 70’s disco break that will rock many a dancefloor.
Then, showing their abilities to the full come tracks like “Drummatical” and “One Thousand Speakers”, with techno squeals and squeaks; and possibly my favourite, the incredibly dark “Hunt for the Twisted Desire”. This track has an evil bassline over a freaky sample about hunting vampires, then a phat beat that just pounds relentlessly is dropped over the top. The dark, techish mood is continued with “Invincible Bass” and the rolling “Dominate”.
By signing the Drumattic Twins, Finger Lickin’ once again show us they are the leader in breaks, and this album is yet another beautiful feather to put in their cap. Let there be no more doubt that breakbeat has come of age and is maturing beautifully.
Stardust
Stardust had a HUGE line up of the best DJ’s in the world, and we weren’t disappointed one little bit! After enduring a 20 minute queue, (which I found out later I could have bi-passed) I headed straight for the Fabric stage (breaks room) to see Phil K, one of Australia’s finest breaks DJs. I’ve seen Phil tear it up in Melbourne, and was interested to see how he’d fair here. I was rather disappointed at first, as he was playing a very mellow kind of breaks – slow with girly vocals. It would have been great at about 6 in the morning, but not at midnight when you want the party to get started! His style changed thankfully, and he pulled out some awesome new breaks tunes that tore up the floor and got everybody dancing.
Then stepped in Adam Freeland. Perhaps the greatest DJ in the world at the moment. He started out playing some rather tech-house kind of stuff, but with that unmistakable breakbeat sound. It got to about 2am, and everyone bailed to see Andy C, but they should have stayed to see Adam Freeland really shine. He dropped some of the funkier breakbeat ala Finger Lickin’, and really got the crowd moving. I’m still amazed at his seamless mixing on 3 decks and 2 CD players, his incredibly timed but understated scratching, and his wonderful crowd reading abilities. Just as you were thinking “he’s getting kind of mellow” he’d crank it up and get you up and jumping, waving your hands in the air.
After Adam Freeland I headed straight to the dnb area to see Andy C. I had heard a lot of hype about this guy, and wanted to see if he was really “all that”. After seeing him I must say he’s one of the best dnb acts I’ve seen this year. His mixing is very smooth, and he didn’t allow technical hitches like jumping needles faze him. He had the crowd going wild, and is one of those DJ’s who actually looks like he’s enjoying himself. His set was a blend of old and new tunes, which had me liking it, as I was afraid I wouldn’t know any of the tunes and wouldn’t get into it as much. MC GQ sounded as though he was rather horse, but he still ripped up the microphone.
At about quarter to 5 I thought I had about an hour of Andy C left, so went for a wander. I headed back to the Fabric stage to see Chris Fortier. He was Ok, but the music was rather slow after Andy C, so I did something I haven’t done before… I checked out the Hard House room. I was kind of hoping to see Lab 4, but I obviously missed them, but DJ Odyssey was on the stage, and I actually found myself dancing to his set!!! Alarming, I know, but it was just the right kind of tempo I was looking for. I can’t say I’d do it again, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn’t as cheesy as I thought it would be.
I headed back upstairs to find a rather empty dnb room, and then realised that Andy C was no longer playing. I was very disappointed that I missed the last of his set, but glad I had made the most of my evening. It’s been a very long time I’ve wanted to stay at a party until daybreak, but the evening seemed to rush by and I was rather surprised to see dawn quickly approaching as I started to leave. It was an amazing night, one of the best I’ve had in quite a long time, and I look forward to the next one.
Altitude
I have a reputation for disliking dnb. I don’t HATE it, but I think most of the new stuff is too hard and repetitive and well, boring. I think that too many DJ’s play the same stuff and it all sounds the same. Maybe I’m just showing my age! However, I’m pretty open minded, and when the opportunity to review Altitude at it’s new home of Minke’s Skylab came up, I jumped at the chance. I missed previous shows, but heard rumours of “intelligent drum’n’bass” being played there, and some of my favourite DJ’s were on the bill, so I thought “what the heck!”
The crowd wasn’t huge but there was a nice and intimate vibe and they certainly were up for it. I arrived after the ITM party (which seemed slow to start), but I was astonished to see a fair amount of people boogieing down to Mark 7 at around midnight. He played a set that was much harder than what I was expecting for an “intelligent” drum’n’bass show, but there were no complaints from the crowd. DJ Fiction followed him up extremely well, steadily bringing the pace back a few notches, but holding the dance floor well. I was very pleasantly surprised not to hear the same tunes repeated, again proving to me that Adelaide dnb DJ’s are not to be underestimated.
Then Motive came on. WOW! The stuff he played was the stuff this jaded raver realises he loves – nice, boppy feel, kinda funky and jazzy, but not so much to make you fall asleep. Stuff you can get you up and shake your ass to on the floor or just sit back and nod ya head to. His mixing was very smooth, and it was good to hear tunes that don’t get much play here in a “prime-time” spot. Through all this the one and only MC Grif accompanied the DJ’s. This guy is, in Miss Ribbon’s words, “a machine”. He was up there busting rhymes the whole time, hyping the crowd, a true performer!
The sound was pretty good… although it sounded like they forgot to switch something on, and half way through fictions’ set it got decidedly better. Not louder – crisper and fuller – and my ears weren’t ringing for days afterwards. The live visuals were a nice touch, but they were obscured in the most part, which I thought was a real pity because there were some very interesting things going on, on that screen.
This night made me realise that Adelaide is a little spoilt for dnb. We’ve got the finest local DJ’s and MC’s, and promoters who bring over the best acts from interstate and overseas and who are willing to do something a little different every now and then. I guess I’ve been taking it for granted, and needed a quality night to show me just how good dnb can be, and Altitude was it!